“ After the International Year of Woman when all the important countries of the world are trying to give the fair sex their rightful place in society and are working for the complete emancipation of women by breaking the old shackles and bondage in which they were involved, it is difficult to accept a contention that the salutary provision of the code are merely meant to provide a wife merely with food, clothing and lodging as if she is only a chattel and has to depend on the sweet will and mercy of the husband. The same of reasoning was adopted in an earlier decision of the Madras High Court in Jaggavarapu Basawamma V/s. Jaggavarapu Seeta Reddi, AIR 1922 Madras 209. here also, the Judge was of the opinion that food and clothing was sufficient for the maintenance of the wife and if the husband refused to inhabit that would not provide any cause of action to the wife to claim separate residence and maintenance ……. The matter deserves serious attention from the point of view of the wife. Here is a wife who is forced or compelled to live a life of celibacy while staying with her such a life is one of perpetual torture which is not only mentally psychologically injurious but detrimental to the health of the woman. Surely, the concept of mental cruelty cannot be different in a civil case and in a criminal case when the attributes of such a crime are the same.”
(Hon'ble Justice S. Murtaza Fazal Ali and A.P.Sen of Supreme Court in Sirajmohmed khan Janmohamad khan V/s. Hafizunnisa Yasinkhan, AIR 1981 Supreme Court 1972 at page 1976-1977, para 14 and 21)
